What tax do you most hate

[Taxta]

I’m torn between stamp duty and inheritance tax.

I will never buy a house or inherit anything so neither of those bother me

I thought the whole idea of gambling taxes was that you paid the tax with your stake, wasn't it? Was this not established in 1994 when the national lottery came in?

The government get the same amount of tax in overall, but if you tax the very people who win big, it makes them deeply resentful; whereas 20p or so on every couple of quid to enter spent by millions of punters doesn't even register with most people.

Inheritance is unearned by the recipient. Taxing it is not 'evil', I'd say it's the fairest place for the government to be taking it from.

Who are these people and where are they getting this untaxed gain from?

My parents worked hard for their savings, they were not wealthy, just prudent. My Dad was an orphan, my Mum one of 9, they inherited nothing. They had 2 children one of whom pre deceased them by not very much time. Apart from the sibling loss, there are many people like me who only narrowly avoided inheritance tax. They didn't leave me with much admin, but any when you are bereaved is effort and feels like you have to prove you are entitled to what they wanted to give you.

There really are options around tax planning that you should look into

I think stamp duty is actual theft. It’s free money for the govt to squander.

Inheritance tax also (not that I’ve ever know anyone who’s paid any) - but it seems that your accumulated wealth over your lifetime that you wish to pass to your children is partially stolen by the government. Just because they can.

Council tax is also theft. My bins are emptied once every 3 weeks. That’s it. Nothing else to show for it. The adult social care was severely lacking when my mum was old and dying.

I could accept taxes if there were decent services. But the services are shocking.

No idea of the solution, seems we’re totally fucked.

Soon people will also hate income tax. The benefits bill this year will exceed income tax receipts. That seems totally fucked up.

Inheritance tax is daylight robbery.

I’m completely in favor of IHT. Stamp duty I would rather not have to pay but in general I’m pro tax. It makes complete sense to me. I don’t find any taxes ‘evil’

Dividend tax because I had to pay a very small amount last year, £3 and it was a right palaver as it isn't taken automatically, I either had to fill in a rather lengthy form or ring up to declare this and then it took several months for them to tell me it had been sorted out, I wasn't sure if I had filled in the form correctly, next time I will ring up.

Council tax is just ridiculous and outdated, and yes, currently seems very poor value for money. The whole system needs to be redone to make it fairer.

Stamp duty is awful, although hasn't affected me personally

I do agree with IHT though, despite the fact it may well affect me in the future

Stamp duty is terrible and distorts the housing market in negative ways.

On a personal level, I paid several years worth of hard saving to the government simply for the privilege of moving house in the South-East.

Someone famously said All Tax is Theft but re the IHT you need to do the work beforehand because that's what rich people do (or pay someone to do it). Once again all these taxes are within the ability of the Government of the day to change. Are any of them going to put these tax changes in their manifestos?

CGT

Stamp duty. I hate it. Why should I have to pay a tax because I need to move for work or ill health for instance.

So few people actually end up paying inheritance tax. Its a stupid high sum for those that do which just makes people work even harder to avoid it.

It's not a tax as such for me - it's the complexity of our tax system.

i would like to see a complete overhaul of it and make it much more straight forward. The rules on vat in particular are odd and often actually just crazy. Ie confectionary standard rated (absolutely fair enough) but giant marshmallows (a recent vat case) are zero rated as they generally aren't eaten with fingers (roasted etc) - make that make sense.

the vat rules on food are quirky and complicated.

Iht - good tax
Stamp duty - bad tax
Fuel tax - bad tax: a basic necessity which affects working people
Income tax: the bandings are wrong
Council tax: the bandings are wrong and craply managed
NI: I don't really understand why this is a separate tax - though obvs important - could do with better management
Capital gains : good tax
Vat : makes sense
Uni loans aka 'graduate tax' : some are too high
Gambling should be taxed at a super high rate and I don't understand why it's not

Yes and how demotivating it would be for people to work hard and be successful if you knew you couldn’t pass on anything to your children.

Great idea

She said it all.

Council tax. I live alone so get 25% discount but I think it should be 50%

They haven't 'done anything to deserve' 😲

Agree.

Also VAT on any education as a ridiculous and damaging policy that brings no benefit.

I also hate the fact that as a self employed person I have to pay tax in advance. So unfair.

Savings are declared on your tax return if you have to make one. Pensioners often do.

But it isn't the recipient who pays it - it's the person who dies (well, their estate) who pays it. Otherwise, there would be a huge difference between an heir who has nothing and one who is already a multi-millionaire.

Theoretically, you could avoid all other taxes - however extremely impractical it would be. You could only earn under your tax-free allowance; you could camp in a field rather than living in an actual home; you could only buy things that are zero-rated for VAT. BY contrast, unless you can live forever, there is no way whatsoever that you can be immune from paying IHT if you have assets over the threshold.

Yet somehow people who don’t have kids continue to be successful despite not having children to leave their money to. Maybe it would make people more generous while they’re alive instead of hoarding wealth and dying at 90 and making their 65yo well off children richer